Indeed, Memphis definitely had the faster feet and the longer arms on the inside, you're not going to be able to drive and kick against them and that's what UCLA kept trying.


Anyways, I'm glad it shook out this way. I would have been disappointed if it had been either UNC/Memphis or UCLA/Kansas. Maybe not so much UCLA/Kansas but I won't get tied up into that.

The defense for Memphis was too much for North Carolina and that is essentially where the game was lost. Aside from a good run in the middle, that 28 points was pretty close to insurmountable. It was the 2-3 zone. Memphis had faster feet inside early and while Hansbrough is a great positional player, he was overwhelmed by 3 sets of faster feet and longer arms inside. It was to much, there were a lot of loose balls in the middle of the paint for this very reason and Kansas just ran away with it. Then the game began to speed up a little more and instead of going out of the set offense, North Carolina ran the court and that and a few really good plays by Green off the bench got them back in the game. That couldn't be sustained.

This game versus Memphis they aren't going to match up in a 2-3 so we'll see them tested there. Davidson gave Kansas' backcourt hell so it'll be interesting to see what Memphis does. Memphis meanwhile, isn't going to win on the size of their backcourt like they did today. The two teams have very similar physical builds and that is going to make for a good game. Both teams' strength is in their back court but neither team is a perimeter team. Hopefully the refs let them play because both teams are always cutting to the basket in the lanes. Dorsey isn't going to have an assignment like Kevin Love where he plays against a conventional center, neither of these teams have a true center.

Should be interesting, I would think Memphis, Derrick Rose really seems to have put them over the top, and with defensive attention now split in the backcourt, Douglas-Roberts is having himself a tremendous season. They've been close the last couple years, they certainly appear to be the team of destiny, they have been ON FIRE this season and most people passed over their 1 loss season and attributed it to C-USA but now, they've just run through the tournament. Quite a season, if they pull this out I think you have to compare this Memphis teams to the great teams of all time.

Back to UCLA, wow, 3 straight final fours and no titles to show for it. Collison might aswell change his name to Kelly, as in Jim Kelly.

If UCLA was to win, Westbrook is best to pass the ball and not try to make everything happen himself. That, above everything in this stretch of UCLA games where they really have to fight for the win, they've gotten away from M'ba (I won't try to spell the rest) and Love until the stretch where they could come up big. This game, that point never came and the long arms of Memphis were able to cut off the passing lanes and thus cut off the ball supply to Kevin Love. They looked totally confused without their big man able to play point guard from the post because that's what he did in the Pac 10 all year. Props to Joey Dorsey, what a full circle he has come. He was huge today, played the game of the year against one of the players of the year in Love.